The Sunshine Holiday that Never Ends

El Gordo De Verano: Spain's Sizzling Summer Lottery

Eager for a taste of some Spanish sunshine this year? Well then we've got the perfect thing for you. El Gordo De Verano – Spain's summer El Gordo lottery. As its name suggests this is the sister lottery of the ever-popular Spanish Christmas lottery, the biggest on the planet.

The long-awaited El Gordo de Verano lottery draw will be held on Saturday, July 2nd 2016. So have yourself a proper Spanish style fiesta by winning your share of a massive $180 million prize pool in this annual lottery extravaganza.

What Does "El Gordo" Mean Anyway?

In Spanish the phrase "El Gordo" means "The Fat". So if, for example, you hear Spaniards talking about some guy called "Paco El Gordo", you can safely assume that Paco's a rather rotund chap to say the least!

In lottery terms, however, "El Gordo" refers to the jackpot, which makes sense since the jackpot is always the biggest, fattest prize of them all. And this is particularly true of Spanish lotteries.

Thing is, if you don't already know this, it can be quite confusing, especially because Spaniards tend to use the name "El Gordo" interchangeably.

Elsewhere, however, people assume it's all just the one lottery – which isn't the case. But as you'll see that's actually a good thing.

The El Gordo "Holy Trinity" now Available at Lottoland

With the launch of El Gordo De Verano Australian players can now bet on all three of Spain's popular El Gordo lotteries. In addition to the annual Christmas and Summer lotteries we also offer the weekly El Gordo De La Primitiva – Spain's most popular lotto. So now you have three great chances of winning some of the biggest and most corpulent jackpots!

The Spanish Summer Lottery

Although the available prize pool isn't anywhere near the legendary size of the world record-holding Spanish Christmas lottery there's still lots of reasons to be excited about this hot summer lottery.

You see, both the Christmas and Summer El Gordo lotteries are very different to popular lottos like EuroMillions. In the lottos we know best, the emphasis is on having one large jackpot, and then lots of smaller prizes beneath. The lower the prize value, the more plentiful, creating a familiar pyramid shaped prize structure.

Not so in Spain, where it's all about distributing as much wealth to as many people as possible.

That's why when you play the Spanish Summer lottery you have a 1 in 3 chance of winning any prize. You can search the world looking for another lottery with those kinds of odds and never find one.

It also means that, depending on your luck, you can end up winning anything from the cost of a cheap flight to Malaga to the price of a sprawling villa in Marbella, with more than enough left over for a nice pearl-white Maserati in the driveway.

How it Works

El Gordo de Verano is not a lotto, in so far as you don't pick numbers. Instead you buy tickets just like a raffle – except this raffle has $180 million up for grabs.

Tickets are assigned a five digit number ranging from 00000 up to 99999 and are printed in series, so you might have ten winners with the same numbers as you, just part of a different series.

You can buy a full ticket if you want, although the Spanish tend not to do this. Instead they pool together and each buy a tenth share of the ticket. This is why you always hear about groups of people winning (friends, family, co-workers, etc.) rather than individuals. So if you have your own lottery syndicate then you won't want to miss out on the El Gordo De Verano draw – it's practically made for syndicates!

Lottoland is a bookmaker, and not a lottery operator. You cannot purchase entries in any lottery via Lottoland. Lottoland allows you to bet on the outcome of lotteries from around the world. The website is operated by Lottoland. Lottoland has no relationship or affiliation with the operators of the lotteries. Bets do not contribute to the prize pool. Payouts are made in AUD, exchange rates apply.

* Divisions 1 to 3 for bets on the US Powerball and US MegaMillions are subjected to a 38% reduction, whilst Division 1 bets are paid out as 30 year annuity or discounted lump sum as per T&C’s. US Powerball is not connected to the Australian Powerball. Divisions 1 to 3 for bets on SuperEnalotto are subject to 12% reduction as per T&C's.